that I am truly your very humble and very affectionate Servant From Poitiers Jan. 20th 1616. Puysieux Prince Philip and Madame his Princess had so much goodness as to disabuse the Princes and Grandees who had raised a war which they called the War of the Henrys because the greater part of the Heads of that Party were so called Mounseir the Prince was called Henry of Bourbon Monsieur du Mayne Henry of Lorrain Monsieur du Longeville Henry of Orleans and the Duke of Bovillon Henry de la Tour. They told them all that these injurious Speeches were pure inventions to animate them against my Father They acquainted them likewise that whilst he acquitted himself of his duty he all along continued to preserve that respect which was due to them That for what remained there was no reason to object it to him as a crime to have served his Master faithfully And that he could not without betraying his trust and endangering his own ruine but execute such orders as came to him from Court I remember that I saw them at our House in my infancy and particularly the Princess who had the goodness to make very much of us and did my Father the favor to think fit that one of my Sisters who was born at that time should have the honor of bearing her Name of Eleanor She was presented in Baptism by Prince Henry Frederick of Orange who was her Godfather This Daughter was married to the Baron de Mauzè near Rochelle Brother to the Marquess de la Villedieu and died without Children in 1660. She was a Woman who painted the best in France and writ the most correctly whose Letters were all of a vigorous and masculine Stile without one word that was unnecessary Prince Philip died at Brussels in the beginning of the Year 1618. He had the Hemorrhoids very much inâ—…amed and Gregory a German Chyrurgeon having hurt him with the Syringe whilst he gave him a Clyster a Gangreen insued and it was impossible to save him The Princess his Wife died likewise in the same Year After his Death Count Maurice his Brother took upon him the Quality of Prince of Orange and inherited his whole Estate whereas before he was contented with the bare Title of Count. Maurice of Nassau Prince of Orange THis great Captain has falsified the Proverb which says The Children of Heroes are generally good for nothing for though he was the Son of a most excellent Father who left behind him an immortal Glory yet he has not only equall'd him in his prudence and greatness of Soul but has likewise surpassed him in the Art Military and great Performances As the Father for 20 years together made the discourse of all Europe so the Son for 40 years successively did it much more than all the crown'd Heads in Europe for from the Year 1584 when he came first into action to 1625 when he died Prince Maurice was never mentioned without admiration and astonishment as being held for one of the greatest Captains that has ever yet appeared In truth though Nature does not always make extraordinary efforts to produce great men in the same family and succession yet the great Actions of the Father are powerful Incentives to stir up their Children to imitate them The Glory of their Ancestors being a Light which directs their posterity to march in those generous paths which they have trod before them If the vertue of strangers has often stirred up some couragious Souls to do great things as that Greek whose rest was discomposed by the Triumphs of Miltiades sure domestick examples must be much more moving that they may not incur the shame of having degenerated Upon this occasion I shall here relate what I have often heard my Father say in his latter years That he had undoubtedly past his life in the Country like some of his predecessors had not it been for the example of Iames Aubrey his great Unkle who by his Vertue his Knowledge and his Eloquence discharged the office of Advocate General to the Parliament of Paris was Lieutenant Civil of the Council to Henry the Second and his Ambassador Extraordinary to England where he concluded a Peace between Henry the Second and Edward the Sixth and left behind him the reputation of being the French Demosthenes and Cicero by that famous Plea which he made pursuant to an order of the King for the people of Cabrieres and Merindol and which Monsieur the Chancellor de Hopital admired so much that he has translated great part of it into Latin verse My Father therefore thought that by his labour he might arrive to honourable employments and so well ordered the Talents which God had given him that he likewise was employed in Embassies and admitted to the Council of his Princes Prince Maurice of Orange from his very childhood discovered the passionate desire he had to follow the glorious steps of his Father and took for the body of his Device the Trunk of a Tree cut off so as to seem about two foot high from whence there grew a vigorous Sprout which apparently would renew the noble Tree which had produced it with these words Tandem fit circulus arbor At last the Sprout becomes a Tree To show that he would revive the glories of his Father I do not pretend to represent the great Actions of this Prince in all the particulars I shan't say any thing that may be found in common Annals nor add to the number of those who transcribe other People my design is only to draw the Portraicture of his Person and his Manners to inform the World of some transactions of his Life which are not known and to set forth the causes of those great differences which hapned between him and Mr. Barneveld which as it was thought would have overturn'd the Commonwealth by an intestine division that has remained almost to this day and threaten'd its ruine if it had not been prevented But before we come to these things it is necessary briefly to represent his principal Actions and to tell you That Prince Maurice had a great stock of Constancy and Courage from the 17th year of his age when he was called to the government of Affairs upon the decease of his Father for he was not cast down by that torrent of Success which attended Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma Governor and Captain General for the King of Spain who had then taken Bruges Ghent Dendermond Deventer Nimeghen the Grave with a great many other places and even Antwerp it self which was held for impregnable by a Siege which was looked upon as a Miracle of the Age having stopped the River Schelde and repell'd the force of the Sea by a Dyke which was then held as a thing impossible and which afterwards set an Example for undertaking the same thing at Rochel Prince Maurice was not more disturbed by the confusion and disorder that had reigned for a long time in the Common-wealth occasioned by the haughty conduct
Prince who was his Nephew and had been bred up with him at Sedan and the Duke discovered some Ambition to have his Nephew a King when he wrote to some Friends at Paris that whilst Lewis was making Knights at Fountainbleau he was making Kings in Germany But this Royalty did not continue above 6 months so that his Enemies called him a King of Snow because the single battle of Prague in the beginning of the year 1621 lost him all Bohemia Silesia Lusatia Moravia with the adjoyning Provinces and the year following the Spanish Forces marching from the Low Countries deprived him of the Palatinate itself in which he was not re-established but by Adolphus's Descent into Germany Charles Duke of Lorrain who died many years after one of the oldest Captains of the age signalized himself very much at the Battle of Pragne where Count Harcourt was likewise tho very young But to return to Prince Maurice France being so apparently inclined to the Interests of Barnevelt's Party its Ministers which were then in Holland used to say that Prince Maurice would have pretended to the Soveraignty of the United Provinces but that such People who in the beginning had been hottest against Mr. Barnevelt and most devoted to the Prince yet when they fathom'd his designs became averse to them notwithstanding their former obligations besides the Exile Death and Imprisonment of persons who had been so considerable in the State and had likewise a great many Friends and Dependants wrought a mighty change in the Peoples affections to the Prince which appeared very visibly for whereas before when he went through the Towns of Holland every body came out of their houses praying for him with extraordinary Acclamations now as he was one day going through the Market-place at Gorcum which was full of people there was scarce a single man that pull'd his Hat off to him For the common people were so variable that the very Writings which heretofore had made Mr. Barnevelt become suspected by them were now produced as so many motives for their pity and compassion towards him To this they added that the assistance which probably he might have hop'd for from the Elector Palatine was since the loss of the battle of Prague no longer to be expected and the Emperor Ferdinand the 2d having by the happy success of his Generals Count Tilly and Wallestein made himself absolute Master of all Germany even to the Baltick Sea where he established an Admiralty at Wismar reduced all the Princes and Imperial Towns under his Obedience Prince Maurice could no longer expect Succors from Germany whatever Friends he might heretofore have had there But those who adhered to the Interests of Prince Maurice and the House of Orange acquitted him of a Design so prejudicial to the good of the United Provinces by maintaining that it was a perfect Artifice of his Enemies to make him become odious to the People of the Low Countries for said they what probability was there that Prince Maurice ever had it in his thoughts to become Soveraign of his Country since after the extirpation of Barnevelt and his party he never made one step towards it which he might have done having then no farther obstacles Prince Maurice did not long survive a great Conspiracy which the Sieur de Stautemburg youngest Son of Mr. Barnevelt had laid against his Life which being happily discovered some hours before its execution obliged him to punish a great number of the Conspirators throughout the pincipal Towns of Holland The Prince was never married but had several Natural Children the most considerable of them all was Mousieur de Beververt a man very well made and very brave he was Governor of Bolduc after whose death the Prince of Tarentum had that Government and was succeeded by Collonel Fitz Patrick a Scotchman Prince Maurice died in the Spring of the Year 1625 when the Marquess Spinola besieged the Town of Breda And as some pretended it was for grief that he did not succeed in the Soveraignty so others said that it was because he could not relieve that place which was his own propriety and had been surprized by him 34 years before FREDERICK HENRY Prince of Orange Henry Frederick of Nassau Prince of Orange and his Posterity THis Prince was born the 28th of February 1584. He was of a good mein and of a strong make and his parts were as eminent as his person was agreeable He was a very great Captain and equall'd the Glory of his Brother Maurice who taught him the Art of War and lead him into the most dangerous Adventures and amongst others at the battle of Newport where though he was very young he contributed much by his Valor to the gaining that great Victory in a conjuncture where the Army of the States General had before them a powerful body of men commanded by Albert the Arch-duke in person and the Sea behind them so that it was absolutely necessary either to make themselves Conquerors or to perish When Prince Maurice died in the year 1625 he advised his Brother Henry Frederick his chief Heir to marry Madam de Solmes who was come into Holland with the Queen of Bohemia whose Beauty and good Carriage were accompanied with a great deal of Modesty and Prudence she died a little while ago being very antient and her Name was Amelia Daughter to Iohn Albert Count de Solmes This Prince had one Son and four Daughters the eldest of these Ladies married Frederick William the Elector of Brandenburg by whom she had several Children This Prince has the greatest Territories in all Germany they reaching from the Low Countries to Poland and Curland The 2d Daughter Henrietta Emilia married the Count de Nassau The 3d Henrietta Catherina married Iohn George Prince of Anhalt and the 4th married the Duke of Simeren the youngest Son of the House Palatine who died a little while ago The Son was called William was born in 1626 and died the 6th of November 1650 after the business of Amsterdam He was a Prince naturally ambitious and of great Courage so that his Enemies reported of him that though he was so young yet he aimed at the execution of that design which had been laid to Prince Maurice's charge by Barnevelt and his Adherents His sudden death changed the whole face of affairs in the Low Countries He had great prospects from his alliance of England having married Princess Mary Daughter of Charles the first King of Great Britain by whom he left Prince William Henry of Nassau now King of England c. who was born the 14th of November 1650 some days after the death of his Father This young Prince William was very remarkable in his Infancy for his reservedness and moderation his Prudence increased as he grew up and such people as were nice observers of merit and took great notice of him have affirmed that never Prince gave greater hopes than he even in the most tender years He suffered with an admirable temper
that the Affront they had put upon him in refusing to give him Audience was designed only to lessen his Authority that nothing but a publick satisfaction would make him amends for this Affront which he demanded earnestly of the States The Deputies of Amsterdam and other Cities answered this Remonstrance by a long Manifesto wherein they alledged the Reasons that induced them to make the Prince that Request this touched him to the quick and made him continue more obstinate against disbanding the Souldiers and transported him so much that he Arrested six of the principal Magistrates and sent them Prisoners immediately after into the Castle of Lovestein This violent proceeding of the Prince alarm'd all Holland The people were generally apprehensive that he aspired to the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and that he opposed the disbanding the Troops for no other reason All Europe said something and tho probably the Prince had no such design the attempt that he made upon Amsterdam confirmed the suspicions all men had entertained of him that he was too arrogant to obey the orders of a popular Government But those who judge impartially of this action are of opinion that he never aim'd at making himself King and that he had no other prospect in besieging Amsterdam but to revenge some private affronts and support his authority and credit by humbling such a powerful City Whatever his reasons were he resolved to besiege it and actually perform'd it on the 30th of Iuly 1650 he narrowly miss'd of surprizing it for the Citizens had not the least apprehension of such a design The Troops appointed for this enterprize put their orders so punctually in execution and met so exactly at their rendezvous that the City must unavoidably have fallen into the Prince's hands but for the Hamburgh Courier who passed through the Prince's Army without being perceived and gave timely notice of it to the Magistrates The City immediately took the alarm the Council of Thirty six met the Burghers run to their Arms the Bridges were drawn up the Cannon mounted upon the Ramparts and the City put in a posture of defence Deputies were dispatched to the Prince with proposals which took up all the next day which was done to gain time for the opening of their Sluces The Prince seeing all the Country under water and the impossibility of continuing a long Siege and the firm resolution of the Burghers hearkened to a Treaty of accommodation which was concluded three days after very much to his advantage The Prince was sensible the States would resent this attempt and the better to make his peace with them he released the Prisoners out of the Castle of Lovestein upon condition that they should be for ever unqualified for any public employments or places and at the same time presented a Memorial to the States with a particular account of the motives he had to form this Siege The States sent it back without opening it assuring him that there needed no justification since the difference had been so soon adjusted About a month after the Prince assisted at a particular Assembly in the Dutchy of Guelders where by his prudence and good conduct he entirely quieted all the jealousies they had entertained of him He returned to the Hague about the beginning of November and went to bed very weary with his Journey He had been observed to be melancholy ever since the miscarriage of his design upon Amsterdam for which reason the Court was not alarm'd with this little indisposition He was let blood the next day and the day after the Small Pox appeared and proved so violent that the Physicians believed him in danger he died the 6th day in the Twenty fourth year of his age on the 6th of November 1650. There wanted but three things to make his memory immortal viz. The Continuation of the War which he passionately desired a longer Life and a little more Deference to the State whom he treated with too much authority for he was Master of a great many good qualities and eminently possessed the advantages of body and mind He was a great General and would have been as renowned for all civil and military vertues as the Heroes of his Family He had a vast comprehensive Genius and learned in his Youth the Mathematics and spoke English French Italian Spanish and High Dutch as readily and fluently as his Mother Tongue He was buried at Delf in the magnificent Tomb of the Princes of Orange in great state He married Mary Stuart eldest Daughter to Charles I. King of Great Britain An Illustrious Birth Interest of State and Glory are the three ordinary motives which sway Princes in the choice of their alliances and all three concur in the making this match for the Glory of the immortal actions of his Father Frederick were spread over all Europe William his Son had given a Thousand proofs that he did not degenerate from the Valour and Vertue of his Ancestors and the Family of Nassau had given five Electors to Cologne and Ments and an Emperor to Germany The proposals were no sooner made but they were accepted and the Marriage was celebrated at London with great magnificence From this Marriage was born William III. whose History we are now entring upon WILLIAM III. KING of ENGLAND Prince of Orange etc. THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM III. Prince of Orange AND King of GREAT BRITAIN Out of the French by Mr. Brown THe sudden and unexpected death of William II. who died in the 24th year of his age threw the Court and Friends of the House of Nassau into such a consternation as is not easie to be exprest But to moderate their grief the Princess Royal within eight days after was delivered of William Henry a Prince in whom the valour and all the other qualities of his glorious ancestors revived and who may justly be stiled the Restorer of that flourishing Republick whereof his Fathers were the Architects and Founders He was born on the fourteenth of November 1650 and had for his Godfathers the States of Holland and of Zealand the Cities of Delf Leiden and Amsterdam As it was his misfortune to be born at a calamitous conjuncture when his enemies were furnished with a plausible pretence to deprive him of those Dignities which his Ancestors had enjoy'd the States General finding themselves now at liberty by the death of William II. and concluding from the enterprize of Amsterdam what they might expect from a single Governour resolved to remedy all inconveniences that might for the future happen upon this occasion and so appointed a General Assembly to meet at the Hague This Assembly began on the eighteenth of Ianuary 1651 and did not end till the month of August the same year In the first Session it was resolved That since the Country was now without a Governour by the death of the Prince the choice of all Officers and Magistrates for the time to come should be in the disposal of the Cities and that not only
absolutely Commanded half the Roman Legions who governed all the World With these great forces and advantages they entred upon the Stage made their first Victories the fore-runners to the next pursued their blow and one overthrew the Empire of the Persians and the other the Roman Commonwealth But Prince William has equall'd the Glory of these great Conquerors by attaquing the formidable Power of King Philip of Spain without any Army or Forces and by maintaining himself many years against him His Courage was always greater than his Misfortunes and when all the World thought him ruin'd and he was driven out of the Netherlands he entred 'em again immediately at the Head of a new Army and by his great Conduct laid the foundations of a Commonwealth that covers the Ocean with its Fleets and over-matches all Europe in the number and strength of its Naval Forces His Enemies had no other way to ruin him but by a base Treachery which he might have avoided if he had reposed less confidence in the love of the People who served him instead of Guards and considered him as the Father and Tutelar God of their Country After having reflected on all the Illustrious Persons that have lived before him I can meet with no one that equall'd his profound Wisdom heroick Courage and Constancy under all his Adversities but Gaspar de Coligny Lord of Chastillon Admiral of France so great a Man that D'Avila his Enemy was forc'd to own that he was more talk'd of in Europe than the King of France himself This Admiral after the loss of four Battles was so far from being broken or ruin'd and continued still so powerfull that his Enemies were oblig'd to grant him a Peace and had it not been for a Treachery whose Memory will be eternally abhorr'd by all good Men he might have ended his days in Peace and done great service to his Country by the Conquest of the Low-Countries which he propos'd at so favourable a conjuncture that we might easily have made our selves masters of ' em But the ill maxims of those Divines who would conform all Religion to the humours and passions of Princes and the Doctrine That no Faith ought to be kept with Rebels and Hereticks and that 't is lawfull to do a small evil to bring about a greater good added to the powerfull Motive of Revenge prevail'd over all the Ties of Honour and Faith which ought always to be sacred and inviolable William of Nassaw Prince of Orange was Born in the Year 1533 at the Castle of Dillembourgh in the County of Nassaw He was Nine years Page of Honour to the Emperour Charles the Fifth who continually admired his extraordinary good sense and modesty This great Prince took delight to communicate his most important affairs to him and instruct him and has often declar'd to those he was most familiar with That this young Prince furnish'd him with Expedients and Counsels that surpriz'd him and which otherwise he had never thought of When he gave private Audience to Foreign Princes and Ministers and Prince William was about to retire with the rest of the Company he usually bid him stay All the World was surpriz'd to see this great and wife Monarch esteem him above all those that were about him and trust him at so tender an Age with all the secrets of his Empire the management of Affairs and the weightiest Negotiations He was scarce Twenty years old when Charles the Fifth chose him out among all the great Lords of his Court to carry the Imperial Crown which he resign'd to his Brother Ferdinand An Office which he discharged with much unwillingness assuring his good Master That 't was an unwelcome Task he had imposed on him of carrying that Crown to another which his Uncle Henry Count of Nassaw had put upon his Head And for a proof that Charles the Fifth set on less a value on his Courage than his Prudence when Philibert Emanuel Duke of Savoy was obliged by his own private affairs to be absent some time from the Netherlands tho' the Prince was but 22 years old and was in Breda at that time Charles the Fifth of his own accord against the advice of all his Counsel made him Generalissimo to the prejudice of so many experienc'd Captains and among the rest of Count Egmont who was Twelve years older at a time when he had to deal with two great Generals Mounsieur de Nevers and the Admiral of France But the Prince was so far from receiving any blow that Campagn that he built Charlemont and Philipville in sight of the French Armies I do not pretend to relate all the Actions of the Prince of Orange which would require a Volume and which so many Historians have done in several Languages 'T would be a strange itch of writing and a manifest robbery to publish what may be met with in particular Books My design is only to make some Reflections and Observations on this great Prince and acquaint the World with some particulars of his Life which I learn'd from my Father and other eminent Men of that Age. But in order to make my History more intelligible and agreeable to those who have not read his Life I was engaged contrary to my former intentions by an Illustrious Person to whom I have too many Obligations to refuse him any thing to make a short Abridgment of his Life enough to give a general Idea of him as Geographers present us at one view all the Old and New World in a little Map not doubting but a Narrow Portraicture of so extraordinary a Man will cause these Particulars I know of his Life to be read with greater pleasure and besides will show to all the World upon what foundations this Prince has erected the powerfull Commonwealth of the United Provinces Besides the esteem the Emperour had for his Vertue there was no Man at his Court whom he lov'd so tenderly as the Prince of Orange Which he made appear to the last moment of his Administration For at the famous Assembly at Brussels A. D. 1555 when the Emperour resign'd all his Kingdoms to his Son Philip 't was remarkable that in so considerable an Action he was supported by the Prince of Orange All these marks of Confidence and professions of Friendship which the Emperour made him were the cause of his Misfortunes For tho' at his departure into Spain the Emperour recommended him particularly to the King his Son the Spaniards who govern'd him for he had been bred always in Spain being jealous of the growing Greatness and good Fortune of this young Prince made the King entertain such suspicions of him that his most innocent words and actions had an ill interpretation put upon 'em and the refusel which the States made of complying with the demands of the King was laid to his charge He easily perceived by the cold receptions of the King that his Enemies had ruin'd him in his good opinion But he was confirm'd in his
February following eight days after the Defeat made sufficient amends for this Loss Don Iohn encouraged by this great Success and hoping that this Victory would be the Instrument of another advanced with great Forces to attack the Army of the States at Rimenant near Malines commanded by the Count de Bossut But the Count had intrenched himself so strongly that Don Iohn was obliged to retire in great Confusion and considerable Loss And 't was agreed on by all Hands that if the Count de Bossut had marched out of his Camp he would have intirely defeated Don Iohn who had a Crucifix in his Colours with this Motto With this Sign I have beaten the Turks and with This I will beat the Hereticks In Iuly the States-General consented to a Toleration of both Religions in the Provinces which was called the Peace of Religion which all Men were not satisfied with by this means a Third Party sprung up called the Malecontents the principal of which were Emanuel de Lalain Baron de Montigny the Viscount of Ghent Governour of Artois Valentine de Pardieu Sieur de la Motte Governour of Gavelines the Baron de Capres and others Thus the Provinces of Artois and Hainault returned to the Obedience of the King notwithstanding all the Remonstrances which the States made to them by Letters and Deputies About this time the States coined Money with the Bodies of Count Horn and Count Egmont and their Heads upon Stakes on one side and on the reverse two Horsemen and two Footmen fighting with this Inscription praestat pugnare pro patriâ quam simulatâ pace decipi It is better to fight for our Country than be deceived by a feigned peace The Malecontents to secure themselves against the States desired that the Foreign Troops might be recalled into the Netherlands contrary to the Pacification of Ghent and the perpetual Edict On the other side the States in order to their Defence treated with the Duke of Alencon whom they call'd the Defender of the Belgick Liberty upon condition that he should supply them with 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse paid at his own Charge This Treaty was concluded by the Means of the Queen of Navarre his Sister who in her Journey to the Spaw-Waters had drawn over a great number of Men to the party of her Brother whom she loved so tenderly among others the Count de Lalain and the Sieur D' Enchy Governour of Cambray A. D. 1578. in September died Don Iohn of Austria in the Camp at Namur of Grief for being suspected in Spain where his Secretary had been Assassinated or of Poyson as many are of Opinion Immediately after died the Count de Bossut General of the States who after his Death desired Mr. de la Nove Bras de fer in Consideration of his Reputation Valour Conduct and Experience in War to take upon him the Charge of Mareschal de Camp of their Army Alexander Farneze Prince of Parma succeeded Don Iohn in the Government of the Low Countries and by his Civility and obliging Carriage to all Men added to the great Promises he made strengthened the Party of the Male-Contents and weakened the power of the States About this time the 22d of Ianuary A. D. 1579. the Prince of Orange laid the first Foundation of the Commonwealth of the united Provinces by the strict Union which he made at Utrecht between the Provinces of Gueldres Zutphen Holland Zealand Friezland and the Ommelands consisting of Twenty six Articles the chief of which were these The Provinces made an Alliance against the common Enemy and promised mutually to assist each other and never to treat of Peace or War but by common Consent And all this without prejudice to the Statutes Privileges and Customs of every particular Province Which Article was broken under the Government of Prince Maurice when the States General assumed a Jurisdiction over all the Subjects of the Provinces who till that time had no other Lords than the particular States of the Province This Treaty was called the Union of Utrecht because 't was made in that City It was râ—…tified by all the Governours of the Provinces and the States to show how necessary a perfect Union was to their Preservation took those words of Micipsa in Salust for their device Concordiâ res parvae crescunt little Things become great by Concord That Year Maestricht was taken by Storm by the Duke of Parma after a Siege of four Months and a Treaty of Peace was set afoot at Cologne by the Mediation of the Emperor Rodolphus but the King of Spain refusing to grant a Toleration of Religion in the Netherlands though it had been allowed in France and Germany the design did not take effect Under the Government of the Duke of Parma many Actions passed between the Male-Contents and the Troops of the States commanded by Mr. de la Nove who surprized Ninove in Flanders and took in their Beds Count Egmont his Wife and Mother with Count Charles his Brother and carried them Prisoners to Ghent where the People as they passed through the Streets threw Dirt upon them and treated them with a thousand Indignities and abuses upbraiding them with abandoning their Country to joyn with the Executioners of their Fathers But Monsieur de la Nove after great Success was surprized himself with the few Men he had with him by the Viscount of Ghent and Marquess of Risbourg The Cause of this Accident was the Sieur Marquette's not obeying Monsieur Nove's Orders in breaking down the Bridge which led to him By order of the Duke of Parma he was carried Prisoner to the Castle of Limburg where he was barbarously treated by the Spaniards who offered to set him at Liberty provided they might put out his Eyes From whence 't is visible how apprehensive they were of this great Captain At last after a long Imprisonment he was exchang'd upon Count Egmont's Swearing never more to bear Arms against Spain of which the Duke of Lorrain and many other Lords and Princes were Guarrantees Besides his great Skill in the Art of War which is celebrated by all Historians never was a Man of so clear and dis-interested a Vertue which he gave continual proofs of during the whole Course of his Life but among the rest one very remarkable Instance Monsieur de la Nove Bras de fer was a Gentleman of Bretaigne and had a Sister married to Monsieur de Vezins a Man of Quality and Fortune in Anjou who had by her a Son and two Daughters this Sister had 20000 Crowns for her Fortune but dying young Monsieur de Vezins married a Woman who was one of her Attendants by whom he had several Children This Megere after the Death of her Husband desiring to secure to her Children the great Estate of the House of Vezins could think of no more effectual way than by delivering the Children of the first Wife her Mistress to an English Merchant for a Sum of Money upon Condition that she
Infanta of Portugal Mother to Don Carlos That he murthered his own Son for speakiing in Favour of the Low-Countries and poisoned his third Wife Isabella of France Daughter to Henry the II. King of France in whose Life-time he publickly kept Donna Eufratia whom he forced the Prince of Ascoti to marry when she was big with Child by him that his Bastard might inherit the great Estate of this Prince who died of Grief if not says the Prince of a Morsel more easy to swallow than digest That afterwards he was not ashamed to commit publick Incest in marrying his own Niece Daughter to Maximilian the Emperor and his Sister But says the King I had a Dispensation Ay says the Prince only from the God on Earth for the God of Heaven would never have granted it These are the very Words of the Prince That it was as strange as insupportable that a Man blacken'd with Adultery Poisoning Incest and Parricide should make a Crime of a Marriage approved of by Monsieur de Montpensier his Father-in-law a more zealous Catholick than the Spaniards are with all their Grimaces and Preterisions That if his Wife had made Vows in her tender Age which is contrary to the Canons and Decrees according to the Opinion of the ablest Men And though she had never made any Protestations against it He was not so little vers'd in the Holy Scriptures but He knew that all Bonds and Engagements entred into meerly upon the Score of Interest had no Force before God To that Article where the King calls him a Stranger he answers That his Ancestors had possessed for many Ages Counties and Baronies in Luxemburg Brabant Holland and Flanders and that those who have Estates in the Provinces have still been reckoned Natives That the King is a Stranger as well as himself being born in Spain a Country which bears a natural Aversion to the Low-Countries and he in Germany a neighbouring Country and Friend of the Provinces But says the Prince they 'll say he is King to which he answers Then let him be King in Castile Arragon Naples the Indies and Ierusalem and in Africk and Asia if he please that for his part he will acknowledge but a Duke and a Count whose Power is limited by the Privileges of the Provinces which the King has sworn to ob serve That he must let the Spaniards know if they are not acquainted with it already that the Barons of Brabant when their Princes go beyond Bounds have often shown them what their Power was He ended this Discourse by saying That 't was strange that they had the Impudence to charge him with being a Stranger in regard his Predecessors were Dukes of Gueldres and Owners of great Possessions in the Provinces when the King's Ancestors were only Counts of Hapsburg living in Switzerland and their Family was not known in the World The Prince maintains that the Design of the Spaniards was always to enslave the Netherlands and erect a tyrannical Government as they have done in the Indies Naples Sicily and Milan That the Emperor Charles the V. being acquainted with it represented to King Philip in his Presence and the old Count of Bossut and many others That if he did not curb the Pride of the Spaniards he would be the Ruin of the Netherlands But that neither the paternal Authority nor the Interest of his Affairs nor Justice nor his Oath which is sacred among the Barbarians could bridle his unbounded Passion of Tyrannizing That the Country granted a considerable Supply of Money with which and the Courage of the Nobility of these Provinces having won two famous Battles and taken a great number of Prisoners of the highest Quality in France he concluded a Peace at Cambray as Profitable to himself as Disadvantageous to his Enemies That if the King had any Gratitude remaining he could not deny but that he was one of the principal Instruments in bringing it about having managed it in particular with the Constable de Montmorency and the Mareschal de St. Andre by the King's Orders who assured him that he could not do a more grateful piece of Service to him than by effecting a Peace at a time when he was resolved to go into Spain upon any Terms But these Supplies of Money and this great Success obtained by the Blood of their Nobility were reckoned Crimes of High-Treason because nothing would be granted but on Condition the States-General should meet and the promis'd Subsidies pass through the Hands of Commissaries of the Provinces to clip the Wings of these Harpies Barlaymont and others like him And these as he assures are the two great Crimes which created that implacable Hatred in the King and Council to the Low-Countries The first of these Crimes was the Demand of an Assembly of the States-General who are as much hated by bad Princes for bridling their Tyranny as they are loved and reverenced by good Kings the true Fathers of their Country who consider them as the most sure Foundation of a State and the true support of Soveraigns The second is the Demand they made of having Commissioners of the Provinces for managing the Subsidies the Prince affirming that these Devourers of the People reckon their Robberies and Cheatings a better Revenue than that of their Lands That seeing themselves out of Condition any longer to enrich themselves at the Expence of the publick with Indempnity they look out for all Pretences by flattering their Princes to incense them and set them at odds with their Subjects He concluded this Article by assuring the States-General to whom he addresses himself all along that he has seen their Actions heard their Discourses and been Witness of those Counsels whereby they designed to make a general Massacre of them as they had practised in the Indies where they had destroyed thirty times more People than are in the Low-Countries To that part of the Charge where the King accuses him of gaining the Hearts of all those who desired Innovation particularly those who were suspected of the Reformed Religion by his private Intrigues and of being the Author of the Request against the Inquisition He owns that he was always of the Reformed Religion in his Heart which had been established by his Father William Count of Nassaw in his Dominions That he heard the King of France Henry the II. say when he was Hostage in France that the Duke of Alva was then treating with him to root out all the Protestants of France the Low-Countries and all Christendom besides That they had resolved to establish the merciless Inquisition the Severity of which was such that the looking a squint upon an Image was Crime enough to deserve burning That he could not suffer that so many good Men and Lords of his Acquaintance should be design'd for the Slaughter which made him firmly resolve utterly to extirpate this cursed Race of Men and that if he had been well seconded in so just and generous a Design there would have been
nothing left to preserve the Memory of the Spaniards but their Bones and their Graves As for the Address which they make a Crime of he thinks it as advantageous to his own Credit and Honour as to the King's Service and the Interest of the Provinces to have advised the presenting it as a certain method to divert the Deluge of these infinite Disorders which afterwards happened And as for the Protestant Sermons he advised Madam de Parma to permit them things being in such a posture that they could not be hindered without a manifest danger of the entire Subversion of the Government When the King says that the Care and Providence of Madam de Parma was so great that he was obliged to quit the Netherlands he owns that the Charge would be true if his Treachery and Disloyalty had been the Cause of it but that a year before he would willingly have retired and surrendred all his Employments When he saw that Monsieur de Bergues and Montigny had lost their Lives in Spain and Gibbets were erected and Fires kindled all over the Country he thought it high time to put himself in a place of Security without trusting to the King's Lerters full of fair Promises and Offers the better to deceive him That they had fallen upon his Person and Estate That neither the Consideration of the Privileges of the University of Louvain nor the Province of Brabant could hinder them from carrying his Son Prisoner into Spain And that by so rigorous and unjust a Treatment he was absolved from all his Oaths and had good Ground to make War upon his Enemy which was objected to him as a Crime That the King laid nothing to his Charge but what his Predecessor Henry of Castile had been guilty of who tho' a Bastard rebell'd against his lawful Prince Don Pedro King of Castile and Leon and kill'd him with his ownhand If the King answers that Don Pedro was a Tyrant and that he possessed Castile only by that Title wherefore says the Prince should not the King of Spain be used in the same manner for there never was a Tyrant who subverted the Laws and Constitutions of the Country with more Arrogance or broke his Oath with more Impudence than King Philip. And that at least Don Pedro was neither guilty of Incest nor a Parricide nor a Murtherer of his Wife And though he was born the King's Subject and should take up Arms against him 't was no more than Albert the first Duke of Austria formerly Count of Hapsburg his Predecessor had done against the Emperor Adolphus of Nassaw his Lord one of the Prince's Ancestors The Prince affirms that there is an origiginal mutual Contract between the Dukes of Brabant and their Vassals that they owe Obedience to their Prince who on his side is bound to preserve their Privileges the chief of which are That the Dukes cannot change the Constitution of the Province by any Decree That they are to be satisfied with their ordinary Revenue That they can lay no new Impositions nor bring any Troops into the Province without the Consent of the States nor alter the Price of Money nor imprison any man without the Information of the Magistrate of the place nor send him out of the Country The Lords of the Provinces are obliged by their Oath to maintain and assert these Privileges because by their Prerogative they have the Charge of the Militia and the Arms of the Province and not doing it they are to be accounted Perjur'd and Enemies of their Country That the King has not violated only one of these Privileges but all and many times over He has seiz'd upon his Estates his Dignities and his Son contrary to his Immunities That for this Reason he was absolved from his Oath of Allegiance and by Consequence had a right to defend himself by Force of Arms and above all because the King would never redress and make Amends for his Faults having rejected the Intercessions of the Emperor Maximilian and the Petitions of his Subjects who deputed to him the principal Lords of the Netherlands which he put to Death by the Hands of the Hangman against the Law of Nations as he had served all others whom he could seize on by his Artifices and who were too credulous in believing his false Promises This abundantly justifies the Prince for taking up Arms for his own and his Country's Preservation and if he could not take footing in the Netherlands at his first Entry as the King reproaches to him 't was no more than what had happened to the greatest Generals and to the King himself who has often invaded Holland and Zealand and been driven shamefully out without being able to make himself Master of one Inch of Ground And in regard by his Oath he dispenses with his Subjects from obeying him if he acts contrary to the Laws why is he so impudent to say that the Prince has taken up Arms against him unjustly To that Article in which the King says he returned into Holland and Zealand by Bribery and Corrupting the Inhabitants he makes answer that he went there at the Instance and Sollicitation of the principal Men of the Province which he is able to make appear by their Letters When the King accuses him of having persecuted the Church-men driven out the Catholicks and banished that Religion he replies That all this had been done by a common Consent to preserve their Lives and Privileges against Men who had taken an Oath to the Pope and were setting all Engines a work to subvert their Liberties and the newly established Religion Which was represented at the Treaty of Peace at Breda where this Article of Religion was confirmed by the Decree and Seal of all the Cities and that 't was not fair to impute that to him which was done by an unanimous consent of the whole Country When he reproaches him for granting Liberty of Conscience he answers that he had always been as averse to the Burning so many Men as the Duke had taken pleasure in it and that he was of Opinion to put a Stop to all Persecutions He ingenuously owns that the King before the holding of the States at Ghent and his Departure into Spain had commanded him to put to Death many good Men suspected to favour the new Religion but he never put these cruel Orders in Execution but gave them notice of it not being able to do it with a safe Conscience and chusing rather to obey God than Man He says that they do him Wrong in laying the Murther of some Ecclesiasticks to his Charge for he punished the Criminals with Death and those who were of an illustrious Family as the Count de la Mark convicted of those Outrages were condemned only to Imprisonment and loss of their Employments in Consideration of their great Alliances To that Head wherein the King declares that he did not command the Duke of Alva to establish the Imposition of the 10th and 20th
penny he answers That his not being punished for it is sufficient Proof that he had Orders to do it And that he cannot escape the Imputation of a Tyrant for Imposing this Tribute or suffering so great a Boldness committed against his Will to go unpunished He adds that the Duke of Alva had too much Sense to dare settle so severe an Imposition without the express and reiterated Orders of the King and that otherwise he would never have fined the Burgo-master of Amsterdam 25000 Florins for opposing the raising of this new Tax That the King would have done much better to preserve the Kingdom of Tunis and Guletta which the Emperor had conquered from the Turks and which he preferred to all his other Victories than to make an unjust War upon his own Subjects But that his Passion and Fury had transported him so far that his Eyes and Understanding were blinded and hindred him from seeing the ill Measures he had taken And that he chose rather to expose his Weakness to his Subjects than employ his Forces against the common Enemy of Christendom He adds that as Hannibal had sworn the Ruin of the Romans upon the Altars of his Gods so the Duke of Alva had vowed the Destruction of the Netherlands which is visible from the Cruelties he committed there That if a Master is known by his Servant they might easily guess at the good Affection the King bare to the Low-Countries by the Tyranny of this unrelenting Minister When the King says That the Pope dispenses with him from keeping his Oath the Prince answers That he does not consider that by breaking his Oath at the same time his Subjects were absolved from their Oath of Fidelity He adds That the Duke of Alva was preparing to hang the principal Men of Brussels for refusing to submit to the raising of the tenth Penny and that the Hangman was ordered to get ready seventeen Ropes that the Dictum of the Sentence was already writ and the Spanish Soldiers going to their Arms to guard the Execution when the happy News of the Taking of the Brille arrived and saved them from the Gallows Speaking of the perpetual Edict he says it was concluded by the Artifice of the Spaniards contrary to his Advice and that of the States of Holland and Zealand That there was no other Difference between the Duke of Alva and the Commander de Requesens and Don Iohn but that the last could not dissemble as well as they nor conceal his Venom so long For 't is undisputable from the Letters which were intercepted that he had the same Orders as the other Governours had to oppress the Low-Countries When they charge him with Breaking the Pacification of Ghent and the perpetual Edict he answers That 't was the Spaniards that broke it by restoring no man to the possession of his Estate or Charges and by detaining the Prisoners That the King had given Orders to Don Iohn not to observe the Peace as appears from the intercepted Letters and that when he swore to it 't was on Condition that he would keep it till he repented of it as he explained himself to some Deputies of the States Thus the Peace of Ghent and the perpetual Edict being once violated 't was in the Power of the States to provide for their own Defence by explaining enlarging and altering the Treaty That he is extreamly concerned at the Insolencies which the Soldiers committed in his Governments though they were not to be compared with the intolerable Outrages of the Spaniards He Complains of the Treachery of many Lords and Gentlemen of the Netherlands who preferred their own private Interests and the Spanish Tyranny to the Good of their Country which they have torn by their Division and might have rendred flourishing by their Union Inveighing against the Infidelity of his false Brothers called Male-contents he says He cannot enough admire the Inconstancy and the unsettledness of their Resolutions They serve the Duke of Alva says he and the Commander Requesens like Servants and make a vigorous War upon me Immediately after They treat with me are reconciled and declare themselves Enemies to the Spaniards Don Iohn arrives they follow him and contrive my Ruin when Don Iohn miscarries in his Attempt upon Antwerp they quit him and recall me I am no sooner come but contrary to their Oath without acquainting me with it they call in the Archduke Matthias And him too they immediately forsake and without giving me notice send for the Duke of Anjou and promise him Wonders and then abandon him and join with the Duke of Parma upon which the Prince cries out Are the Waves of the Sea or the Euripus more inconstant than these Men who consented to this Proscription when 't was my Courage and Firmness that restored them to the Enjoyment of their Estates and Places When they say that he got the Government of Brabant and Flanders by Intriguing and making Parties he answers in a Word That these Governments were conferred on him at the Desire of the States and by a general Approbation When they endeavour to make him odious by saying that he loads the People with Impositions he replies That they are laid on by the Consent of the People and if the King raises such excessive Taxes upon his Subjects to oppress Holland and Zealand and the other United Provinces why should not they have the same Liberty allowed them in order to defend themselves from the Spanish Tyranny When they blame him for turning out those Officers in the Cities who were well affected to the King he says That they were Enemies to the Country and he did well to drive them out When the King taxes him with the Credit and Authority he had over the People as a great Crime he answers that 't is a great Honour to him that they have chosen him for their Defender against so cruel a Tyranny which has kindled so just an Hatred and Aversion in all their Hearts When they reproach him with hating the Nobility Yes says the Prince those who degenerating from their Ancestors and not treading in their generous Steps betray their Country and join with those who endeavour its Ruin When the King says that the Peace treated at Cologne by the Mediation of the Emperor Rodolphus was judged reasonable by all men of Sence the Prince says That it follows thence necessarily that all those who think it unreasonable and deceitful have neither Reason nor Judgment For what Appearance is there continues he that a People harrassed and impoverished by so long a War would refuse an equitable Peace with their Prince unless it appeared to be a Bait or a Blind only to surprize them That this Peace projected at Cologne was worse than War and that the Honey of a treacherous Tongue is more dangerous than the Point of a Sword That if the Emperor thought this a reasonable Peace he was perswaded so by the Betrayers of their Country When they object to him the
Murtherer being killed by the Halberdiers of the Prince and Papers found in his pocket which proved him to be a Spamard they were undeceived and the People who had run to their Arms to revenge his Murther on the French at the Cloister of S. Michael where the Duke of Anjou lodged retired to their Houses The Prince of Orange to appease the Tumult with much Difficulty writ a Letter with his own Hand to the Magistrate to assure him that the Spaniards were the Authors of this Attempt The Grief and Concern of this great City for the Wounding of the Prince cannot be expressed Immediately publick Prayers were appointed and as long as he continued in Danger the People stayed in the Churches praying to God for his Recovery When he was well they kept a general Fast and the whole Day was imployed in thanking God for restoring to them the Father of their Country When he was in a Condition to travel the Duke of Anjou carried him to Ghent and Bruges where another great Conspiracy against those Princes was discovered The chief Man concerned in it was Nicholas Salvedo a Spaniard who confessed that he had received 4000 Crowns from the Duke of Parma to make away the Duke of Anjou and the Prince of Orange by Poyson or any other way and that he followed them in order to put his villainous Design in Execution Francis Baza an Italian and Native of Bresse one of his Complices was arrested likewise and confessed the same thing but before Execution stabbed himself with his Knife to prevent the Severity of the Punishment which was preparing for them Salvedo was carried to Paris where by a Decree of the Parliament he was drawn in pieces by four Horses in the Greve The wretched Salvedo seeing himself a Prisoner in the Conciergerie accused Monsieur de Villeroy in hopes to save himself by making so great a Man a Partner in his Guilt or at least suspend the Punishment he deserved But no Credit was given to so Hellish an Accusation of a Minister of the greatest Abilities and the most devoted to the Good and Interest of the State of all those who ever had the Administration of France And it must be acknowledged to his Honor that in all the Fury of the League he was the Man that prevented its falling into the Hands of Foreigners and after a Ministry of fifty years died poorer at the End than the Beginning of his Greatness His Father had been likewise Secretary of State and his Grandfather of the same Name De Neville was so under Francis the First and Superintendant of the Finances The Duke of Anjou imitating the Conduct of Rehoboam who ruined himself by following the Counsel of the young Men by the Advice of the Sieurs de Fervaques S. Agnan de la Rochepot and other hot-headed young Fellows that governed him without acquainting the Prince of Orange the Duke of Montpensier Count de Lavall nor any other Lords who were capable of giving him good Counsel resolved contrary to his Oath and against all Justice to seize the same day on all the most considerable Cities of the Netherlands as Dunkirk Dendermonde Bruges and Antwerp it self not being able to bear any longer the great Authority of the Prince of Orange and so limited a Power complaining to be only a Sovereign in Name And for a Proof of his just Resentment and in his own Justification he alledged that the People of Antwerp had taken up Arms to destroy him in his Lodgings and having rebelled against him by so rash an Act he was consequently absolved from his Oath Thus he surprized Dunkirk Dendermonde and some other places but missed of Bruges and Antwerp when he thought himself Master of it for though he had poured into the City 17 Companies of Foot supported by all his Army which he had advanced near the Walls under pretence of making a review of it nevertheless the Burghers ran in all hast to their Arms and made so brave a Resistance that the French were obliged to retire in Disorder to the Gate by which they entred where there was made such a terrible Slaughter of them that 't was impossible for those without to succour their Friends within for there were Mountains of dead Bodies pil'd in Heaps one upon the other which block'd up the Entry and cut off the Retreat of the French of whom there were more stifled than kill'd In this bloody Dispute called the Enterprize upon Antwerp there were killed only 83 Burghers and 1500 French among whom were 300 Gentlemen who were all buried without Distinction in a great Ditch And as the people of these Counties who are much of the same Humour with the Germans in all extraordinary Events make Computations upon the Numbers they observed that this Deliverance fell out in the Year 1583 which Number made up that of the 83 Burghers and 1500 French who were killed that day The Duke of Anjou having miscarried in his Attempt surrendred by a Treaty made with the States all the Places he had possessed himself of and returning into France died of Grief in his Appenage of Chateau-Thierry in the beginning of the next year with the Reputation of a violent and unsettled Temper The Flemmings believed that the Prince of Orange was concerned in the Attempt the French made to surprize Antwerp and his Enemies and Enviers which great Men never fail to have made use of this false pretence to lessen his great Credit and of his fourth Marriage with Louise de Coligny Daughter to the Admiral de Chastillon whom he married after he had lost his third Wise Charlotte de Bourbon who died at Antwerp not long after he was cured of his Wound which was a visible proof as they said of his Inclination to the French who at that time were had in Execration by all the Netherlands Seeing himself thus suspected and that the Party of the States declined in the Walloon Provinces he retired into Holland where he thought his Life in greater Security and less exposed to those Attempts which Superstition on one side and the Reward promised in the Proscription on the other made every one ready to undertake against his Person He chose the City of Delft for his ordinary Residence where at the Beginning of the year 1584. he had a Son born called Henry Frederick Grandfather to the present Prince of Orange who did not degenerate from the Vertue of his Ancestors Prince William employed Philip de Mornix Seigneur de S. Aldegonde in the Management of his greatest Affairs and made him Burgomaster of Antwerp when he left it He was a Man of Quality Integrity and Learning About the End of his Life he made use of Iohn Barneveld whom he valued very much upon the account of his Honesty and great Capacity Having been almost overset with the Tempests which had been raised up against him and having a Heart above the Storms he took for his Devise a Sea-Gull or Didapper in Latin
Mergus with this Motto Saevis tranquillus in Undis Undisturb'd in the midst of the stormy Waves He behaved himself with so much Sweetness and Civility to the common People that he never wore his Hat as he walked through the Streets where People of all Ages and Sexes crowded to see him His most intimate Friends assured my Father that in his Passage through the Streets if he heard a Noise in any House and saw a Husband and Wife quarrelling he entred heard the Difference patiently perswaded them to a Reconciliation with incredible Sweetness The Breach made up the Master of the House asked him if he would not taste his Beer the Prince said yes the Beer brought the Burgher according to the Fashion of the Country begins the Prince's Health in a Gup which they call a Cann and which is usually of blew Earth then wiping off the Froth with the palm of his Hand presented the Can to the Prince who pledged him And when his Confidents told him that he condescended too much to Men of such mean Quality and treated them with too much Civility the Prince used to answer that what was gained by pulling off a Hat or a little Complaisance was bought at a very easy Rate No wonder after this that he was so universally lamented by the People when he was unhappily assassinated in the 51st year of his Age. 'T was done by one Baltazar de Guerard a Gentleman of the Franche Comtè and Native of Villefons in the County of Burgundy who in Hopes of a Reward or pretending to merit Heaven by taking out of the World an Enemy to the King and the Catholick Religion killed him at Delft as he rose from Table with a Pistol Shot loaded with three Bullets of which he died without saying any thing more than Lord have Mercy on my Soul and this poor People This dismal Accident happened in the presence of Louise de Coligny his fourth Wife and the Countess of Schouarzebourg his Sister whom he loved very tenderly and who never forsook him and was present at Antwerp when Iouregny wounded him This Villain had insinuated himself into the Acquaintance of the Prince under the name of Francis Guyon Son to Peter Guyon of Besancon who suffered for Religion He had always the Huguenot Psalms in his Hands and was a constant Frequenter of Sermons the better to conceal his Design Insomuch as the Prince trusted him and sent him upon several Dispatches and at the very Moment he assassinated him he demanded of the Prince a Pass-port to go somewhere where the Prince was sending him He was but 22 years old and made appear as much Constancy and Resolution in suffering the Punishment of his Crime as Boldness in undertaking it He repeated a hundred times that if he had not done it he would do it again and when his Flesh was plucked off his Limbs with burning Pincers he did not utter the least Cry or Groan which made the Hollanders believe he was possessed by the Devil and the Spaniards that he was assisted by God Almighty so different are the Opinions and Passions of Mankind The Marks of the Balls which entred into a Stone of the Gate after they had gone through the Body of the Prince are shown to Strangers at this day in Delft in Holland and I my self saw them when I was young Thus died William of Nassaw Prince of Orange and these are his principal Actions which are like so many solid Pillars upon which he has erected the great Fabrick of the Commonwealth of the United Provinces There was need of as vast a Genius and Capacity as his was to undertake so great and difficult a Work an unparallelled Courage to carry it on to the End and an unheard of Constancy in arriving to it in spite of the formidable Power of Spain and the domestick Treasons which crossed his generous Designs After this I believe no Man will accuse me of an Hyperbole for ranking this great Man among the Heroes of Antiquity and asserting that the Life and Vertue of the Admiral de Coligny bore a great Resemblance with that of the Prince of Orange They had both a very great share of Conduct Wisdom and Moderation They both had the Address to clear up and unravel the most perplexed and embroiled Affairs Both heard more than they talk'd They had both the Art of persuading and were full of good Counsels Both possessed the Hearts the Esteem and the Veneration of all those of their Party Their Courage was above their Misfortunes and their Constancy in supporting them was admirable Both were often routed and still found some glorious Resources in all their Adversities Both had to do with the most powerful Kings of Christendom Both made use of the Assistance of England and Germany to maintain themselves Both lived in the same Time and out-lived 50 years Both supported the same Religion and established it one in France the other in the Low-Countries Both were proscribed and Prices set on their Heads The Prince was seconded in his Wars by the Courage of Count Lodowick Adolphus and Henry of Nassaw his Brothers And the Admiral was supported in his by the Counsels of Odel de Coligny Cardinal de Chatillon and by the Valour of Francis de Coligny Seigneur d' Andelot Colonel-General of the French Infantry his two Brothers In fine both died a violent Death and by Treason and both equally dreaded The powerful Princes whom they had attacked not thinking themselves secure till they had cut off these two great Men and not being able to compass it by open Force and War made use of Treachery and Fraud to bring it about The Prince would never have perished as the Admiral did for he would never have committed himself to the Power of his Enemies being of the same Opinion with the Man who said that when a Subject draws his Sword against his King he ought to throw away the Scabbard The Prince died by giving all sorts of Persons too free Access to his Person at a time when Superstition was the Motive to such horrible Attempts and perhaps by being of Caesar's Opinion who told his Friends when they advised him to guard himself and make himself fear'd That 't was better to die once than live in continual Apprehensions of Death As soon as the News of his Murder was spread about nothing was to be seen over all Parts in the Cities but Tears nothing to be heard over all the Villages of the Country but Lamentations as if all had lost what was most dear to them The People of the United Provinces in the Celebration of his Funeral shewed the greatest Mourning which was ever heard of and their Affliction went even to Despair The Funeral Pomp was very Magnificent all the Nobility assisted at it and the chief Men of the Provinces in deep Mourning followed by an incredible Number of People of all Conditions Prince Maurice his Son followed the Corps having on his Right Hand
shall speak hereafter Besides his celebrated Posterity of legitimate Children the Prince of Orange left a Natural Son called Iustin de Nassau who led a considerable Body of Men to the Assistance of King Henry the IV. before the Peace of Vervins He was a Brave Vertuous Man and died Governour of Breda I have heard my Father say that in the year 1616. having dispatched to Court upon some important Affair a Garson Captain named Lanchere famous in the Netherlands where he served This Courier in his Return passing through Breda Monsieur Iustin de Nassau asked him what News He answered nothing considerable but the Imprisonment of the Count D' Auvergne since Duke of Angoulesme Iustin de Nassau asking him the Reason he replied bluntly striking him on the Back for he was acquainted with his true Extraction Don't you know Sir that a Son of a Whore was never good for any thing A Fault which the poor Lanchere confessed to my Father when he knew that he was a Bastard Which is a proof that 't is good to be informed of Pedigrees and Alliances otherwise we are liable to Mistakes and to offend innocently Persons of Quality The End of the Life of William of Nassau Prince of Orange THE LIFE OF LOVISE de COLIGNY THE Fourth and Last Wife of WILLIAM of NASSAU Prince of ORANGE THIS Lady had very excellent Vertues without having the least Mixture of any Weakness incident to her Sex through the Course of her whole Life though it was very long She had been married to Monsieur de Teligny before the Famous Day of St. Bartholomew which was in 1572. and she died in 1620. The Admiral her Father esteem'd her very much both for her Modesty and Prudence She gain'd every Body's Heart and Affection by her Way of Conversation which was easy and graceful and had an universal Respect as well for her true Sence as her extraordinary good Nature She was very well shap'd though her Stature was but low her Eyes were very beautiful and her Complexion lively The Admiral who loved her tenderly and passionately desired to have her well disposed of after having cast his Eyes upon all the Persons of Quality that were of his own Religion and Party he found none so deserving to marry this excellent Lady as Monsieur de Teligny Son of Monsieur de Teligny a Famous Captain in the Wars of Italy in whom he had observed more Valour and Conduct than in any other Gentleman of his time besides his Vertues were so considerable that those who writ in Favour of Queen Catharine Queen of Medices who mortally hated the Admiral have confessed that she and the King her Son had very great Difficulty to consent to the Death of Monsieur de Teligny who had rendred himself agreeable to both of them by his handsom Deportment and by his sincere and noble Way of Acting which shews that Vertue is always attractive from whencesoever it proceeds and that it has uncommon Charms to make it self admired and favoured though in the Person of an Enemy The Admiral then advised this beautiful Lady to accept of Monsieur de Teligny and to preferr a Man indued with so many good Qualities though of moderate Fortune to others who though they had greater Riches and Titles were still less worthy to possess her But she soon lost so good a Husband together with the Admiral her Father in the cruel Day of St. Bartholomew Having heard of this Misfortune in Burgundy her Mother-in-Law and she with the young Lord of Chatillon her Brother had much ado to get into Switzerland to secure their Lives the Massacre of the Protestants being universal throughout all France This great Admiral was Son of another Gaspar de Coligny Lord of Chatillon upon Loyr Mareschal of France under Louis the XII a Famous General who died at Aix as he was commanding the French Army against the Spaniards and of Louise de Montmorency Sister to Anne de Montmorency Constable of France He left behind him three Sons that were very considerable Odet Cardinal of Chatillon the eldest who was Patron to all the Wits and Learned Persons of his Age Iasper Admiral of France who before that had been Governour of Paris and Picardy and lastly Francis de Coligny Lord of Andelot Colonel General of the French Infantry A Son of the Admiral named Francis was likewise Colonel of the French Infantry he signalized himself as well upon the Bridge of Tours by saving the Persons of Henry the III. and the King of Navarre from the Forces of the League and afterwards in the Battle of Arques by which he gained the Reputation of surpassing the Admiral He left two Sons by a Daughter of the House of Chaune de Pequigny the eldest who promised much was taken off by a Cannon Bullet at the Siege of Ostend the other was the Mareschal de Chatillon Father to the Count de Coligny that died young and the Duke de Chatillon who was killed at Charenton The Mareschal Chatillon had likewise two Daughters one married to the Prince of Montbeliard and the other named Henrietta Countess of Adinton and Suze had so great a Genius for Poetry that she has out done Sappho her self by her exquisite Works which are the Delight of all such as are Lovers of Gallantry Madam de Teligny having lived during her Widowhood with a Conduct that made her admired by the whole World she was sought to by Prince William of Orange after the Death of Charlotte de Bourbon and he married her in the year 1583. upon the Reputation of her Vertue But soon after by a Fatality that usually snatches from us That which is most dear she saw him assassinated before her own Eyes having had but one Son by him born a little before his Father's Death who was the Famous Henry Frederick Prince of Orange She had this Advantage to be Sprung from the greatest Man in Europe and to have had two Husbands of very eminent Vertues the last of which left behind him an immortal Reputation but she had likewise the Misfortune to lose them all three by hasty and violent Deaths her Life having been nothing but a continued Series of Afflictions able to make any one sink under them but a Soul that like hers had resigned her self up so totally to the will of Heaven She has told my Father freely that at her coming into Holland she was very much surprized at their Rude Way of Living so different from that in France and whereas she had been used to a Coach she was there put into a Dutch Waggon open at Top guided by a Vourman where she sate upon a Board and that in going from Roterdam to Delft which is but two Leagues she was crippled and almost Frozen to death There never was one of a more noble Soul or a truer Lover of Justice than this Princess But it was observable during the great Differences between Maurice Prince of Orange her Son-in-Law and Monsieur
each day continually so that when Count Mansfeldt said one day to a Trumpeter whom P. Maurice had sent him That he admired his Master who was a young Prince full of heat and courage would always contain himself within the covert of his own retrenchments the Trumpeter answered him That his Excellency of Nassau was a young Prince who desired to become one day such an old and experienced General as his Excellency of Mansfeldt was at present The year following he took the great and famous Town of Groninghen Capital of the Province he likewise took and retook Rimbergues and seized upon Maeurs and the Grave Towns belonging to his own Patrimony having by the death of several Spaniards revenged the public injuries and those of his Private Family The Reputation of Prince Maurice was very much increased by the long and memorable defence of Ostend where the Spaniards having lost more than Threescore Thousand Men in a Siege that continued above 3 Years and exhausted their Treasures by the expence of above two Millions at last became Masters of a bit of ground which might seem to be a burying place rather than a City At the time of this loss Prince Maurice was so happy and diligent that to return it with Usury in a few days he seized upon the Town of Sluise in Flanders which was of more consequence than Ostend that had cost so many Men so much Time and so vast a Treasure upon which Theophilus says very well in the Ode he made for the Prince of Orange Much time and many years the Spaniards spend Before their Forces gain Ostend But Sir when you resolve to seize a Town Few Days suffice to beat its Bulwarks down Each Day of yours much more importance bears Than all that space of time which mortal Men call Years This Ode did not displease Prince Maurice and tho he was naturally an Enemy to Flattery and Vain glory yet he recompenced this Poet with a Chain of Gold and his Medal to a very great value But this Prince showed at the battle of Newport where he overcame the Arch-Duke Albert that he knew as well how to defeat a numerous and well appointed Army in open field as to defend places or else to force and surprize them The Arch-Duke and the Duke d'Aumale were wounded in the fight Francis Mendoza Admiral of Arragon Maister de Campe was taken Prisoner with a great many other Commanders and even the Arch-Dukes Pages whom Prince Maurice sent him back very civâ—…illy without any Ransom All the Cannon the Baggage and above 100 Cornets and Colors remained in the hands of the Conqueror who saw above 6000 Enemies dead upon the place and had all other marks of a full and entire Victory which made several People say because this great Success happened upon the 2d day of Iuly that the Fortune of the House of Nassau was changed seeing that 300 years before upon the same day of Iuly the Emperor Adolphus of Nassau had lost his Life and Empire near Spire in a Battle against Albert of Austria and that the same day Maurice had revenged the disgrace of his Ancestors by the defeat of the Arch-Duke Albert who was a Descendant from the former Albert of Austria A little before the fight there was a dispute of Honor between Prince Maurice and Prince Henry Frederick his younger Brother who was then but 17 Years old for when the Elder desired him to retire into some place of Safety that in case of any misfortune he might defend his Family and his Country Prince Henry being offended said he would run the same fortune with himself and live or dye by him Prince Maurice showed that no ill success could daunt his courage for the Resolution he had taken to give Battle was not altered notwithstanding that the night before the Arch-Duke had defeated the Count Ernest whom the Prince had sent to seize a pass with 2 Regiments of Foot and 4 Troops of Horse that were all cut off and several Colors with 2 pieces of Cannon taken It is remarkable that the Prince to take away from his Army all hopes of a retreat and to show his Men that they had nothing to trust to but their Arms made all those Vessels that brought them into Flanders to be sent away for which he was much commended by the Admiral of Arragon as the thing which had gained him the Victory by the necessity that was laid upon his Soldiers to fight boldly as having no prospect of Life but in the defeat of the Spaniards so he told his Men before the fight that they must either overcome the Enemy or drink up all the water in the Sea There came out at that time a magnificent Inscription upon this Battle in honor of Prince Maurice which is this Anno 1600 secunda die Iulij Mauricius Aransionensium Princeps in Flandriam terram hospitem traducto exercitu cum Alberto Archiduce Austriae conflixit copias ejus cecidit Duces multos primumque Mendosam coepit reversus ad suos victor signa hostium centum quinque in Hagiensi Capitolio suspendit Deo Bellatori In the year 1600 the 2d day of July Maurice Prince of Orange having brought his Army into Flanders then possessed by his Enemy fought with Albert Arch-Duke of Austria slew his Forces took several Commanders and especially Mendoza then returning Conqueror to his Country he hung up 105 of the Enemies Colors in the Councel House at the Hague to the Honor of God the Disposer of Victory This was not his first Essay of a Field Battle for otherwise he might have passed for one that was good only at the taking of Towns but he had long before forced the Duke of Parma to raise the Seige of Knotsemburg over against Nimiguen having defeated 7 Troops of his best Cavalry a disgrace which the Duke lessen'd by the necessity laid upon him by Orders from Spain to go and succor Roan In the year 1594 he had likewise at the Battle of Tournhout defeated and slain the Lord de Balancon Count de Varax General of the Artillery of Spain who commanded a body of 6000 Foot and 600 Horse of which besides the General above 2000 were left upon the place with several Prisoners of Note amongst whom a Count of Mansfeldt was one there were 38 Ensigns taken with the Cornet of Alonzo de Mondragon which were all hung up in the great Hall of the Castle at the Hague for a perpetual Memorial And upon this occasion I shall here relate how an Ambassador of Poland being come from King Sigismond to exhort the States General to reconcile themselves to the King of Spain whose Power he magnified so far as that sooner or later it would entirely subdue them and speaking as if he would frighten them with lofty words full of Vanity and according to the Eloquence of his Nation Count Maurice who was then present at this Harrangue upon his going out of the Assembly led the Ambassador
the Cathedral Church of Paderburn This Saint Liberius had been Bishop of Mans. Such a beginning enticed him farther and knowing that at Munster there were 12 Apostles all of Silver of a prodigious bigness he went thither and seizing upon the place marched directly to the great Church called the Dome accompanied with all his Collonels and Captains made a Speech to these Apostles reproaching them with their Idleness and Disobedience in not observing the commands of their Master to go instantly through all the World in these words Go throughout all Nations swearing that he would make them Travellers and become obedient So he immediately commanded to coin them into Rix Dollars with which he paid his Army and so spread them throughout all Germany He had taken this for his Device Gottes freindt und der Psaffen feint which is to say Friend of God and Enemy of Priests whom he slew or at least guelt them without any remission at last this outragious Spirit departed in 1626 at Wolfenbottle of a burning Fever in the prime of his Youth After having raised the Seige of Berghen op Zoom Maurice Prince of Orange did nothing considerable besides the Project he laid for the surprize of Antwerp but Heaven and the Winds were opposite to his design he had given so good order for every thing the Undertaking was so well laid and he promised to himself such a happy Issue that he said that it was God alone that could hinder the Success Prince Maurice before he had resolved to ruine Mr. de Barneveld honored my Father with his esteem and confidence insomuch that he undertook his defence against those that had aspersed him as his elder Brother Prince Philip and his Princess had done before which was very well known to all those who were then in Holland and which appears evidently by a Letter which Prince Maurice writ to Monsieur de Villeroy after the Peace of Landau wherein he not only justifies my Fathers conduct but moreover tells him that the Court had no Person thereabouts who could serve France so much as my Father and that was so agreeable to him and the States General The Letter is this SIR AT my return from Zeland upon the instances that were made me by Monsieur de Maurier the Kings Ambassador for the Re-establishment of the French Officers in their Employments I used my endeavors for the satisfaction of their Majesties the States having taken the same Resolution their Act shall be executed I am very much pleased that the Troubles in your Kingdom have been so happily composed and particularly that your Labors have so well succeeded in it wishing that this repose may be of long continuance to the prosperity of their Majesties which is the thing that I desire besides although the Care and Diligence which Monsieur Maurier has show'd in his faithful Execution of the Kings Commands may speak sufficiently for themselves yet I must render this Testimony to his Behavior that it has been such as has served their Majesties heartily and to the purpose without giving any one reason to complain having managed all his Actions which are very well known to us with Modesty Respect and Honor and thus much I can give you certain assurance of whereas if any other reports may be spread to his Prejudice they must do great injustice to his Conduct and Integrity The States General and all of us are fully satisfied with his whole proceedings and think their Majesties cannot hereafter make use of any other Minister that will be more faithful and serviceable to themselves or more agreeable to this Commonwealth which as I have reason I must declare to be my own opinion and with that I shall conclude together with assurance of my desire to serve you and prayers to God to give you health and long life Sir your very affectionate Servant Maurice of Nassau This Letter and several others of the same Strain which Madam the Princess Dowager of Orange and the principal Persons in the Country had writ to Court contradicted the Aspersions of several Persons of Quality who had assured the Queen Mother and her Ministers that my Father was disagreeable to the Prince and States General In short Prince Maurice upon all occasions gave my Father very signal marks of his Esteem and Friendship so that in the Year 1615 having a Son born the Prince would be his Godfather and gave him his own name of Maurice with a little Picture of a great value this is he who has been known by the name of Villaumaine and who having past all his Life in Holland where he was born arriv'd by 40 years Service and his own Merit without any favor to the command of Collonel He had a mortal aversion for this last war for he drew his extraction from France where his Family was established on the other side he saw himself obliged to defend the place of his Birth where he had all his effects and where he was at last arrived to an honorable Post by an extraordinary Patience never Man had more true Friends than he and they of all Nations so that he gained the Esteem of all the considerable Frenchmen that had known him in Holland amongst others of Monsieur de Beringhen chief Querry to the King of Mr. de St. Romain who was Ambassador in Portugal and Switzerland and towards his latter days of the Princess of Tarentum He lived in great Esteem for his Valor and Fidelity and died at the Head of his Regiment in the Battle of Senef very much lamented by all that knew him and by the Prince of Orange himself who placed a great Confidence in him I hope I shall be pardoned for the tenderness I had for this only Brother that was left me which occasioned this digression But let us now come to the description of Prince Maurice's Person and Manners even to the secrets of his Life which have not hitherto been divulged as I have learnt them from my Father and several Noble Persons of that Country This Prince was very strong and indefatigable in Labor he appeared lesser than he was by being full and fat his Face was plump and ruddy his Beard fair which he wore very large and broad he always made use of little pleated Ruffs about his Neck He never clothed himself but after the same fashion with the same Stuff and that always of a sort of brown or musk color his Doublet was of Silk with Gold stripes the rest of his Cloaths were Woollen but his Cloaks or long Coats were faced with Velvet I speak of his common Habit and not of those that were designed for great Feasts and public Assemblies He often wore in his Hat a Band of Diamonds he was never without a Girdle to which was fastened a sort of Belt for his Sword that was gilt I never saw him in any other Habit and yet I have minded him a thousand times at the French Church in the Castle at the Hague
bore no good will to him seeing France had followed the sentiments of that great Man and had so little consideration for hisInterests and Councel After this time the Prince sought occasions to revenge himself of Barnevelt but before he came to his final resolution he endeavored to gain him over by the means of the Princess Dowager of Orange his Mother-in-law but this did not succeed for Monsieur Barnevelt intimated to the Princess as if Prince Maurice had a design of possessing himself of the Soveraignty of the Country and that it was upon this account he so manifestly pursued his Ruine The Prince finding that Barnevelt was not to be brought over began to encourage such persons as were jealous of that Power and Authority which Barnevelt had gained upon the States but the Prince managed this affair with such discretion that those whose ruine perhaps he might design should have least reason to distrust him or provide for their own Safety pursuant to this he bestowed upon them all imaginable Favors he gave to Monsieur de Grouneveld Monsieur Barnevelt's eldest Son the Office of Master of the Dykes and Forests in Holland to Stautembourg his youngest Son he gave the Government of Berghen ap Zoom which is one of the principal Keys of the Country Among others he brought over Francis Aersens Son of Cornelius Aersens Secretary to the States originally of Brabant who had been a long time Resident afterwards Ambassador in France This Man was Author of all the violent Councels and principal Executor of the passion of the Prince he was a Man of Ability and very bold who aspired to new things that so he might become great eloquent to the public damage and desirous to heap up Riches by any means whatsoever The Prince likewise made use of several other persons who were of an unquiet and ambitious temper willing to fish in troubled waters and to make their advantage of the disgrace such people were fallen into as they before had reason to envy But as it was not safe so neither did it seem just to fall upon Monsieur Barnevelt and his Dependants till they had rendered themselves suspected and odious to the people the difference which happened at this time upon the matters of Religion between the Followers of Gomarus and Arminius gave an occasion for the Peoples disgust against him for this diversity of opinions had so divided the State that there were great quarrels in the Schools and even fights and murders upon their coming out of the Churches what one Minister had preached in the Morning after Dinner was confuted in the same Pulpit by another Minister of a contrary opinion so all the Doctors and Ministers having banish'd Charity which is the chief Foundation of the Christian Religion instead of instructing People in true Piety and explaining the Word of God that breathes nothing but peace and which is sufficiently intelligible to minds that are meek and well disposed amus'd themselves only with handling such questions as the vulgar never could comprehend and all full of Animosity and Revenge on either Party employed their whole Wit and Knowledge to make their Adversary appear ridiculous employing Scurrility more than Arguments against one another These different Sermons in which the Ministers mutually accused one another of Ignorance and Heresie sowed divisions amongst the People each following the opinion of his own Minister as being uncapable to judge for himself in questions so difficult as those of Free-will Grace or Predestination like as it happens at this time when Ladies of the greatest Quality follow some the opinion of the Jesuits and others that of the Doctors of Port Royal besides this division encreased daily and not only took deep root throughout the whole State but an infinite number of printed Books swarmed in every place and entertained mens minds with Schism and Bitterness The Gomarists wedded to the opinion of Calvin maintained that God had sentenced by an eternal Decree what men were to be saved and what were to be damned that this Sentence drew the one into the path of Piety and Salvation whilst it left the other buried in all that Vice which is common to humane Nature The Arminians said on the contrary That God who was a most righteous Judge and a most merciful Father made this distinction between Sinners that those who repented of their faults should obtain Grace and Life whereas such as were disobedient and obstistinate in their crimes should be punished for them That God desired all would come into the right way and had given them good precepts for to follow but that there was no necessity that might force either the one or the other it depending upon each Mans will either to damn himself or to be saved In the heat of the disputes and in several writings the Arminians accused the Gomarists of making God the cause of mens sins and maintained that by a sort of destiny they made Souls immovable being submitted to the irrevocable fatality of Eternal Life or Damnation The Gomarists on the other side blamed the Arminians for blowing up mens minds with so great an arrogance as to think they could possess the greatest of Treasures which is a Soul well constituted without being beholding to God alone for it but to the Merits of their own Good Works These Opinions were defended with so much heat and positiveness that I have heard Daniel Tilenus a Famous Arminian Native of Gaulsberg in Silesia who had been driven from Sedan by the Ministers of a contrary Opinion and who died at Paris in an extream old Age often say he had much rather embrace the Opinion of Mahomet than that of Calvin alledging that the Turks believed in God whereas the Calvinists did not forasmuch as the principal Attribute of God was to be infinitely Good and Merciful that the Turks acknowledged a God of such a Nature but that the Calvinists framed one that was Cruel Pittiless and that damned his own Creatures with a set deliberation Upon the mention of Tilenus I shall add that he disputed against Cardinal Perron and that the Conference which they had together was Printed and that tho he was a German and upon the Frontiers of Poland yet there was no Person in France who writ in our Language with more Elegancy and Neatness which I am certified of from my Father who received a thousand Letters from him and who was a competent Judge in this matter as being himself esteemed to have had one of the best Pens of the Age He lived in the same Country of Silesia which has likewise produced Monsieur de Borstell who had the same Talent at writing and was so much esteemed by Madam des Loges and immortalized in the Letters of Monsieur Balzaâ—… The States General being often assembled to remedy these disorders which daily happened in all their Cities by reason of these divisions upon the account of Religion it was the advise of Monsieur Barnevelt that all Ministers and
Troopers who would fly before these Germans as Sheep before a Wolf There happened the like inconvenience to the Swedes for having committed the same fault as the Hollanders because after the Peace of Munster they likewise disbanded the old Troops which had done such great actions and revived the antient Glory of the Goths who had conquered a great part of Europe being so bold as to attack the Elector of Brandenburg and his old Souldiers with their new Levies that never durst maintain their ground against him and were always beaten when he could joyn them so that if by an extraordinary good fortune they had not had so faithful and so mighty a Protector as the French King they had quite lost Pomerania and been sent back to their own cold Countries beyond the Baltick Sea All which shows us that a Prince ought always to keep a large body of old Troops to defend his State which without such a support runs the hazard of becoming a prey to the first Enemy that shall be bold and strong enough to attack it To these two causes of the extremities to which Holland was reduced in 1672 that is to say to the intestine divisions and to the disbanding of the old foreign Souldiers there may a third be likewise added which was the extraordinary and unheard of drowth that happen'd that year for it was so great that the Rhine one of the greatest Rivers in Europe that carries Men of War was so low that the French Troops were able to ford it so the Country being frightned to see itself attacked both by Sea and Land by the powers of France and England united to its ruine was reduced to the utmost despair seeing Heaven conspire to their destruction by taking away those Ramparts which Nature had designed for its preservation The French Army for the reasons before mentioned had penetrated into the very Heart of the Country and 40 places were taken in a small space of time whereas the State thought they might have found work for 20 years these people that were a little too haughty in their prosperity lay then under a terrible consternation almost in the same condition as the Venetians were heretofore when King Lewis the 12th made himself Master of the greatest part of the Territories which they had upon the Continent Being in this despair they were constrained to the last Remedy which was to overflow their Country and breaking down their Dykes to oppose a Sea to the French forces so hindring them from passing further they averted the ruine of the Commonwealth which else had assuredly run its period Heretofore seeing themselves reduced to a like extremity they made use of the same Remedy against the Spanish Army at the Siege of Leyden having succoured the place then at the very point of being lost with an innumerable company of Boats which swum upon the Land which they had overflow'd and then the United Provinces were reduced to so strange circumstances and to such a height of despair that the principal persons amongst them proposed in imitation of the ancient Switzers to burn all their Towns Villages and Castles and to spoyl the Country as much as they could and go on board their Ships to settle themselves in the Indies so to be delivered from the Spanish Tyranny but they had not Vessels enough to transport a fourth part of the people and were unwilling to leave the greater number to the mercy of so pityless an Enemy and for a Motto of the lamentable condition which this Country was then reduced to they engraved upon the Money which they coyned at that time a Vessel without Masts and Sayls tost by the waves and storm with these words Incertum quó fata ferant words which represented the extremity of their condition But to return to the Prince of Orange He appeared at the head of an Army at 22 years old as his Great Grandfather Prince William who was Generalissimo to the Emperour Charles the V. at the same Age and throughout the course of this great War he show'd so much Courage and Conduct both in Sieges and Battels that he had assuredly pass'd the Actions of his Illustrious Ancestors who for 200 years serv'd for a model to the greatest Generals if he had not had the misfortune to be born in the age of a King whose Genius and Power no common forces could stand against I do not design to make an exact Journal of the Actions of his Illustrious Father Prince Henry Frederick since they may be learnt from other Histories but speak of them in general and relate some certain passages not commonly known In the year 1626 he took Oldensell Capital of the Country of Tuiâ—…z in the Neighbourhood of Friezeland and Groninghen and the same year Peter Hein one of his Vice-Admirals in the Bay of Todos los Santos in the Road of St. Salvador took a Spanish Fleet laden with Sugar In the year 1627 he took Grolle before the face of Count Henry de Bergues General of a powerful Spanish Army that could put no succours into it nor make the Prince raise his Siege he being so well entrenched against the Enemies Army At the end of the year 1627 the same Peter Hein mentioned before took the Spanish Silver Fleet near the Isle of Cuba This prize without reckoning the Galeons and Vessels was esteemed at more than twenty Millions there were besides other Riches 356000 Marks of Silver and 300000 Marks of Gold abundance of Pearls Cochinele Jewels Bezoar Musk Ambergreese 250 Chests of Sugar and an infinite number of Stuffs and other merchandizes of great value This Vice-admiral Peter Hein arrived gloriously in Holland in the beginning of the year 1629 which was remarkable by the Conquest of the strong Town of Bolduc where by a Siege that was very long and difficult Prince Henry Frederick show'd by his conduct and valour that he could overcome that which had resisted his Brother Maurice who had heretofore attacqued that important place without success But what was more marvellous was that whilst Prince Henry Frederick lay before the place Count Henry de Bergues having pass'd the River Isell with a great Army ravaged all the Country of Utrecht where he seized upon Amersfort and put Holland into such a consternation that several people counselled the Prince to quit his enterprize upon Bolduc and succor the heart of his Country which was made desolate by the Enemy but he had the constancy to persevere till he had made himself Master of so considerable a Town without being moved by the Councels of his chief Officers or the Lamentations of the People that had been plundered At the same time the Prince by the vigilance and resolution of Otho de Guent Lord of Dieden Governour of Emeric having happily surprized the Town of Wesel where was the Magazine and Artillery of the Spanish Army which obliged Count Henry de Bergues to repass the Issel in all the haste imaginable he gained by this double
long Combat where abundance of persons of France England and the Low Countries ran from all parts to see from the shore so extraordinary a spectacle The greatest part of so powerful a Fleet was burnt destroyed or separated and those which escaped put themselves under the covert of some English Vessels and so retreated into the River of Thames or some Port in Flanders The Spaniards lost above 7000 men that were burnt or drowned besides 2000 who were made Prisoners by the Hollanders This Victory was very great and memorable for there were 40 large Vessels sunk burnt or taken and amongst others the great Galeon of Portugal called Mater Tereza was burnt which was 62 foot broad and had 800 men on board who all perished This Tromp was the Father of Count Tromp who was engaged in the King of Denmark's service and gained great advantages over the Swedes In the year 1641 Prince Henry Frederick married his only Son Prince William to the Princess Mary of England eldest Daughter to Charles I. King of Great Britain and Madam Henrietta of France and this Marriage was celebrated with a great deal of Pomp and Magnificence The year 1645 was remarkable for the taking of the important Town of Hulsh in Flanders which was carried in spite of the Spaniards who could neither put succors into it nor make Prince Henry raise the Siege This Prince during the space of two and twenty years that he had the Government in his hands was remarkable for his wife and moderate conduct Because the Princess Louise de Coligny his Mother had maintained Barnevelt's Party some people thought that the Prince following his Mothers inclinations would re-establish that Party and recall such of them as had been banished and among others Mr Grotius But this Prince like a good Politician thought it better to let things continue in the posture he found them in than to embroil'em afresh by bringing a prevailing party upon his back I have seen Mr. Grotius in a great passion upon this occasion and he has spoke very ill of the Prince accusing him of Ingratitude and of having no respect for those who had been Friends to his Mother Prince Henry was very rich but instead of finding any support from England he was forc'd to help King Charles in his necessity with all his ready Money The greatest part of which has been repaid by the King of England since his Restauration to his Nephew the Prince of Orange Henry Frederick died the 14th of March 1647 and was buried with a great deal of State Besides his Children that we have mentioned before he left a Natural Son remarkable for his Valor his name was Mr. Zulestein Collonel of the Dutch Infantry who died at the attack of Vorden Prince William of Orange laid the Foundation of the Commonwealth of the United Provinces and was their first Founder his eldest Son Maurice secured and established this Commonwealth by his Victories which forced the Spaniards in the Treaty of Truce for 12 years to acknowledge the United Provinces for a free State and Henry Frederick Brother to Maurice and Grandfather to the present King of England by the continuation of his Conquests at last forced the Spaniards to renounce entirely the right which they had pretended to that Country so that we may say with reason and justice that this illustrious Father and his two generous Sons who have imitated his Vertues are the Founders of this Commonwealth which sends Ambassadors that are covered before the most powerful Kings in Christendom even before the King of Spain himself whose Vassals they were about 100 years ago Henry Frederick had for his devise this word Patriaeque Patrique intimating thereby that he thought of nothing but serving his Country and revenging the Death of his Father WILLIAM II Prince of Orange THE LIFE OF WILLIAM II. Prince of Orange THis Prince was born in the year 1626 the States General were his Godfathers and by the appointment of his Father was called William after the name of his Illustrious Grandfather In the year 1630 this young Prince was declared General of the Cavalry of the Low Countries and the year following the States granted him the Survivorship of the Government of their Province He was no sooner of Age to bear Arms but he followed his Father to the Army and was present at the Siege of Breda giving great proofs of his Courage though but 13 years old Immediately upon the death of his Father Frederick Henry he took the Oath of Fidelity to the States for the Government of which they had granted him the Reversion All Europe was in a profound Peace upon conclusion of the Treaty at Munster which was done the next year after Prince Henry's death The States considering the vast Debts they had contracted by the extraordinary Expences they had been obliged to make resolved to retrench all unnecessary ones having a great number of Troops in their pay that were of no use now the War was at an end they proposed to disband a considerable part of them William the Second who had succeeded in all the Places of the Prince his Father and knowing very well that nothing but the Army could support the credit of the Places he was possessed of made a strong opposition to this design of the States General He represented that it was against all the Rules of Policy to disband Troops who had been so faithful to the Provinces and that France or Spain might make use of this opportunity to fall upon their Common-wealth in a time when they could not be in a condition to defend themselves The States who were already resolved to break 120 Companies to make some sort of satisfaction to the Prince offered to continue the ordinary Pay to the disbanded Officers The Prince agreed to this proposal but the Province of Guelders and the City of Amsterdam opposed and protested against it for several reasons They who were in the Prince's Interests advised him to visit the principal Cities of the Netherlands to perswade the Magistrates to take a Resolution of leaving not only the Officers but the Troops in the same condition they were in before the War that they might be in a readiness to serve where-ever there was occasion Pursuant to this advice the Prince having sent for the principal Collonels of the Army went in person to four or fiveCities of Holland The Burghers of Amsterdam who were well assured that the Prince would visit them too and apprehending his presence would cross the Resolutions they had taken desired him by their Deputies to put off his intended Journey to this City for several Reasons which they gave him Haerlem Medemblic and several other places followed the Example of Amsterdam The Proceedings of these Cities was so considerable an Affliction to the Prince and incensed him so much that in a meeting of the States General he resented it with inexpressible concern He endeavoured to insinuate to them by a great number of Reasons